I have a tenant who moved in about 6 weeks ago, into my SFR rental. Unfortunately it's been a bad start. After about week she moved in, the drain clogged. So initially I tried to use 25' Rigid snake to snake it out. It didn't unclog the drain, however, I snaked out at least 5 baby-wipes. I asked her if she or her family members did it. She denies it and tells me she emphatically tells her children and husband not to flush baby-wipes, so I give her the benefit of the doubt. So I now I call a professional plumber this same day because I can't unclog the drain....He installs a new cleanout, because this house did not have one; this was a costly $2100 job. So before he completes his job, he ensures that all the drains in both restrooms, the washing machine, kitchen etc. all drain properly, and they do. About two weeks after this, she calls again and complains of clogging. I snake it out and unclog the drain. But what do you know? I extract a couple baby wipes. This time I was unhappy and my voice showed this. I didn't ask whether she flushed baby wipes. Instead, I asserted to her "I asked you not to flush baby-wipes!" She vehemently denied it. I asked her, "If you didn't do it, then did your family members?" She denies it again. Then I ask her in stern tone, "Then why did I find these?" (while holding the nasty baby-wipes that I just snaked out). After this, the drain drained fine. Now, again, about two weeks later, she complains of the same issue. I call up the professional I used, who installed the cleanout and did the intial drain cleaning. I told him I strongly believe I have a recalcitrant and disrespectful tenant who won't follow rules. He agreed to come out in a few days to check it out.....Essentially, I want to kick her out because I fear she will repeatedly do this down the road. She signed a two year lease. What can I legally do to terminate this lease ASAP? --47.154.xxx.xxx

You can steal her garbage late one night and see if there are baby wipe packaging in it and use it as evidence for when you bill her for it. --174.225.xxx.xxx

I video recorded the bathrooms, and there is a box of baby wipes on the tank. It's difficult to say that's enough proof. And I don't want to dig through her garbage. If she disposed of them in the garbage, I wouldn't be having this problem. --47.154.xxx.xxx

A box of baby wipes on the tank would be more than enough proof for me. Just issue a 30 day notice to vacate. Tell her you plan on selling this house. --68.63.xxx.xxx

If she's not doing it- someone she allows in her unit is doing it and she is therefore responsible. --216.186.xxx.xx

--68.10.xxx.x

DJ, this is why I love this site, here I was thinking I knew exactly how to handle this and had the perfect verbiage in my lease in case something like this arose in my unit. And then I read your post and realize I can do better, I’m going to add some of the verbiage in the clauses you posted above to my lease’s. E, DJ covered all the bases on how a LL should handle your situation in my opinion. Good luck, hope whatever you do resolves the issue. --174.192.xx.xx

Don't get mad,not worth the effort.Realize she or someone is just too stupid to understand.Pay the pro so you have a receipt and she has to reimburse you,any money comes in goes to the bill first and rent second,then she owes rent if she doesn't send it all and you evict for non payment of rent --72.231.xxx.xxx

Using the trash can next to the toilet takes practice (if they even have one there). We have a boat and no tp is allowed to be flushed. We keep a pair of gloves for that purpose if someone forgets. If the lease isn’t clear or you haven’t told her she is responsible, give her a copy of the bill, a pair of gloves and a paper sign to hang on the wall or toilet reminding them not to flush wipes because the next plumbing visit will cost $$$. It is babying the tenant, but they will get the point. --24.61.xxx.xx

I like to coordinate all the plumbing calls myself-- I don't want my house to get wrecked because the tenant doesn't want to shell out for a plumbing call-- but the item does allow me to transfer some of the financial responsibility to the tenant for the tenant's own habits. --96.46.xxx.xx

You need to give her a notice to cease the behavior and then a notice to quit because this is never going to stop for two years. I had a male nurse, an anesthesia tech, use those and it stopped up the whole pipe which was under the cement in the basement. It cost me about three grand to get the plumber to run another line around the walls and out to the sewer. I saw the adult wipes on his tub when I went in with the plumber after the clog was reported. You would think someone that well skilled would know better. They don't listen and they don't care especially since you have kids in your rental. --173.61.xxx.xx

I would charge her for the plumbing costs. I would take it out of the rent and sow her rent as unpaid if she did not pay. Of course this works best if your lease has an application of payments clause. --108.51.xxx.xxx

--68.224.xxx.xxx

I suggest that you stop telling her and put it in a written notice. --98.146.xxx.xxx

My mother is the owner of this property and I play "property manager." I am very handy and can perform a lot of basic home maintenance. As a matter of fact I was the one who replaced 45' of termite damaged, load-bearing walls to this property, pulled permit...and passed. My mother is kind of meek, a pushover. I told her to be firm from this point forth. I exhorted my mom to tell the tenant to sign a new clause, that overrides the original 2 yr. lease, that changes the lease into a month-to-month basis...and, that the tenant would pay for future plumbing clogs. My mother refuses to ask the tenant to sign the part switching to a month-to-month lease. My mother is being a pushover, but also because of the rent revenue she fears losing if we are successful at kicking this tenant out. It takes 6 months average to find a qualified tenant. Furthermore, ideally, I don't want to have to snake out the plumbing to this property even if the tenant agrees to pay future plumbing charges. Frequent snaking causes vibrations, potential damage to cast iron pipes. This could cause drain pipe to break underneath concrete slab of house (house is one story, no crawl space). Thanks for all the advice people. --47.154.xxx.xxx

--68.224.xxx.xxx

--47.139.xx.xxx

This woman is one of those kind of people who is not only delusional and condescending, but she is incredibly dumb when it comes to the physical dynamics of things. She lacks common sense.... --47.154.xxx.xxx

Mosh, from what I read it depends on what the cause is. If it's roots in the main line, then = LL. If it's cases like this, then = tenant. --47.154.xxx.xxx

--47.139.xx.xxx

Moshe, what I read was, granted that the drain is clear, but roots grow in the main line, then roots are the LL's responsiblity. But say there are no obstructions anywhere, no roots in the main line, no obstructions in the drain, and the tenants clog the line by putting baby wipes and other inappropriate items down the drain, then the plumbing charges are the responsibility of the tenant. It's conditional, upon the tenant acting responsibly. The LL cannot be responsible for irresponsible behavior such as baby wipes being flushed down. --47.154.xxx.xxx

I am really curious about the comment that it takes 6 months to find a qualified tenant for this property. How can that be? I am trying to imagine the circumstances. --47.41.xxx.xxx

I'm in CA where the average rent is at least $3,500/month for an SFR. I'm in a desirable, pretty expensive area. This property is 1500 sq. ft. on a 5500 sq. ft. lot. Houses this size are easily $1M in this area. A lot of people who look at the house, either aren't interested (they don't even submit application after they've seen it), or if they do, but their credit is good, other issues such as, their gross income is less than 3x rent, or vice versa, or both. I only take 700+ FICO score with at least 10 yr. history and a high line of $50K+ paid off successfully and of course gross triple rent payment. --47.154.xxx.xxx

Tenant pays the bill and writes to baby wipe company to get refunded... --76.188.xxx.xx

--47.139.xx.xxx

QED. --47.154.xxx.xxx

--47.139.xx.xxx

btw, moshe, i doubt you have experience in this and that you're not a lawyer. just arbitrarily stating stuff doesn't mean that's how real estate laws work. ciao! --47.154.xxx.xxx

--47.139.xx.xxx

Here in the Mid-West, our laws are simple and our judges are fair: if the tenant breaks it, I fix it, but then tenant pays me back for it. That much at least seems congruent with CA's practice. However, PROOF (ah, what a fun word!) doesn't have to be video evidence with a date and time stamp. In our lease we state that the TENANT agrees that all drains are in working order at the time the lease commences--and that the tenant tested all drains to verify they are working--so that any future clog not due to mechanical failure of the line and/or tree roots = tenant pays. So basically as long as the contractor confirms on the invoice what caused the clog, that's sufficient evidence for our judge to rule in favor of the LL. --173.20.xxx.xxx

Make her pay the bill if you can legally do so and it will stop. --73.120.xx.xxx

E, Sounds to me like you have all the answers already, so are you just looking for folks to agree with you? If so, probably better go talk to your mom. My mom agrees with most of what I say and when I’m looking for someone to tell me I’m right, she’s my go to call. If I’m looking for advice, I go here. Then I take all the advice I asked for and choose what works best for me, if it doesn’t work for me, I don’t use it. --71.248.xxx.xxx

--70.92.xx.xx

And honestly, I don't like everyone's answers. Some sound absurd to me, like people who play devil's advocate. But most of them sound reasonable in that they'd hold up in a court of law, if I have to take it to that extreme. --47.154.xxx.xxx

SID, that is one hard lesson I am now learning. Next time I will remember to put that in the lease, have them initial it, before finalizing everything. In the nearly 20 years my mother ran her 3 properties, this is the most problematic tenant we've encountered thus far. It's first of its kind...and a hard lesson. --47.154.xxx.xxx

--47.139.xx.xxx

I know people like your tenant who check out well and look good on paper but are out of their minds. Please share what happens if you can, and best of luck too. --73.93.xx.xx

Update: So May 13th or 14th, we had the professional plumber visit again. He took a camera and we inspected the drain from the rearmost (master bath, which is the end of the drain underneath slab of house) to the cleanout (essentially where the drain exits from the house, and into the main line). No obstructions, but unfortunately "backup." We get the drain hydrojetted and it's working just fine, for about a week now. This is nearly $2,600 in plumbing bills thus far. Yesterday I visited and turned the shower on for literally 3 minutes straight, and flushed the toilet three times, in this same bathroom, while the shower was on. No problem, draining fine....Then Ms. Incessant Complainer aka tenant complains to me that other bathroom bathtub drains "slowly." I turn on water at the faucet (not shower head) and it drains fine from my observation; it will "build up to about 3/4 mark to rear of tub with maybe 1/2" of water depth, and when I shut off water it will drain with the gurgle sound. Does not seem like it's draining slow to me. I have an incessant complainer aka Mrs. Impossible-to-please. Not to sound vindictive, but if she complains about another drain clog, and we find wipes or other inappropriate items in drain, I will boot her. Btw, I had the plumber stick the camera down the drain after the hydrojet service, and it shows no obstructions... --47.154.xxx.xxx

Might be time for the happy clause --172.58.xxx.xx

Stop it! Stop it! Stand on a chair. How frustrating! Simply ask tenant "Do you want you live here?" ((Yes)) Ok here is the deal. You can not flush such and such down the drain. That is what you have to do to live here. If you can't do that then you can not live here. Here is the last bill from the plumber ... you have 10 days to pay it. Go right now and bring me the wipes. Take them with you. The End. Urghhh. --99.203.xx.xxx

Downstairs unit drain overflows when the upstairs tenant showers, flushes the toilet or runs a load of laundry. So instead of having someone snake the drains, you're now paying for new flooring, mold abatement, drywall repairs and re-painting. --47.156.xx.xx

Now here's another problem, because hopefully the plumbing issue is resolved. When this tenant first moved in, she complained about flickering lights; it was windy some days since she moved in. My uncle, who's a licensed electrician, came over and checked it out. And after about 2 hours, he concluded that there is nothing wrong with the electrical from the breaker box to inside the house; the problem is from the weather head to the electrical pole, or in other words, it's the utility company's responsibility. And sure enough it was. There were 3 visits by them total. 1st time, the utility worker just installs a new connection to the neutral wire on the pole; doesn't solve the problem; second visit, they just install new connections to L1 & L2 on the pole; ditto. 3rd visit, these guys finally fix the connection from weather head to pole, and problem is resolved. My uncle initially said that because the voltage fluctuates, it is a problem with the source i.e. utility company's connection to the house. Now this delusional tenant still thinks there is an electrical problem, after the utility company fixed the issue and the electricity in the house seems fine to me, after observing it. When the washing machine goes into "wash" or agitate cycle, the lights of the house will faintly flicker, but it is literally a second or two, then it will light normally. This stupid woman has no common sense, and refuses to hear my explanation that high amperage electrical equipment like washing machines, dryers, vacuums, etc. do that, and that the "come & go" drop in voltage/amperage is normal operation.....I exhorted my mother to boot this difficult tenant, but my mother is being hardheaded. Btw, the tenant "threatened" to report us to the real estate office because we "provided poor service for 2 weeks in that the electricity wasn't working right." The tenant is correct that it wasn't working right for two weeks, but she is responsible to call the utility company to fix the problem, because her name is on the account of it. Her refusing to call them up initially was her negligence. But since I did it, 3 times, now it seems like the onus was on our side to have the utility company fix the issue. This tenant is very unreasonable person...and I would boot her immediately if I had the power to.... --204.102.xxx.xxx

.....and that doesn't even count Moshe. --24.20.xxx.xxx

Well, my mother who's the owner of the building calls the shots; she never came along with me during service calls except for once. I'm on the front line doing all the legwork. I see what's going on exactly, both physical observation of maintenance calls, and this querulous tenant's gestures/threats/overbearing/incessant complaining attitude. Since my mom is in the rear, she thinks I'm the one overreacting and vilifying this tenant. My hands are tied behind my back, and therefore I will no longer visit this property as long as this tenant is there. I will let my mother, firsthand, deal with this unpleasant tenant. This way, she'll know what I'm talking about. --47.152.xx.xxx

That sounds like a great idea. --24.20.xxx.xxx

Moishe,Shalom.Charlie.................. --32.214.xxx.xx